Actually, it’s been quite a season for the Ferbs.

Their increasingly desperate search for that elusive spot in December’s Olympic Trials saw them travel the country at a frenetic pace, with Ferbey and lead Rocque Marcel competing, at one point, for 10 weekends in a row prior to Christmas.

Then there was the big win at the Casino Rama Skins Game in January, which featured the Ferb’s first win over arch rival Kevin Martin in some 10 or so attempts.

Then came their second straight series of three losses, all to KMart, to lose the Alberta Tankard championship. Off Martin went, to his fourth consecutive Brier.

After licking their wounds, the squad travelled to Bear Mountain – played some golf, threw some rocks – and started gearing up for the Players’ Championship.

And the rest, they say, is history. Or in the case of the Ferbey Four, the chance to rewrite history, come December.

All of this adds value to a special collectible artwork print the Ferbs have for sale, by artist Janet Deane (above, click to zoom in). Yes indeed, the Olympic Dream is alive and well.

Fans can select a limited edition Giclee framed print in two sizes, either 22×35 or 14×22.

Order through this website.

Elsewhere in this world of curling… which is still very much active, by the way…

• The World Mixed Doubles are into the playoffs in gorgeous Cortina D’Ampezzo in the mountains of Italy, and there is tons of stories and pics available front and centre at the WCF website.

. At this time of writing, Hungary has emerged through two sets of tiebreakers to take on Finland, and the winner plays undefeated Canada in one semifinal. China and defending champions Switzerland are in the other semi.

Canadian competitor Sean Grassie is a budding journalist – as we explained during the Canadian Mixed – and Grassie is once again writing a column on his experiences for his hometown Winnipeg Sun. You can find his thoughts, in order, located here, then here, then here, and from today …

• And let’s not forget the World Seniors, underway tomorrow in equally gorgeous New Zealand …

• DID YOU KNOW: that a car blog – of all things – got in on the Ford Worlds excitement in Moncton, with two postings, here and here? Well, okay, now you do.

• Speaking of Moncton, Swiss third Jan Hauser, who ranked in the top 5 of the TCN Blog’s “Ford World Hotties” competition, seems to have his very own, er, dedicated fan …

• Seems that after saying something rather forceful about Scotland, Cary was forced to eat some crow …

• And Canadians should eat crow. Not only did the Lockerbie four win three in a row against the red and white, the hosts then proceeded to play the wrong national anthem… a point we have previously noted, and which gets some (fortunately) good-natured Scottish griping here …

• Yes, it was a victorious return for the Scots, and good ol’ Bob was there, too …

• WCF President Les Harrison sent in this letter of thanks to his hometown newspaper …

• It’s finally happened. Osama Bin Laden has appeared in a curling spoof.
Funny yes, or funny no?

• DID YOU KNOW II: that amid the hullaballoo over KMart throwing his world championship away, the Old Bear did it again, at the Players’ Championship?

• Curling has got Jackie going ARRGGHH. We know the feeling …

• And finally, poor Aaron. His curling debut was total FUBAR …

Inside you will find a plethora of curling goodies not seen on this blog, which you would do well to seek out. All killer, no filler.

Stuff like:

• The Curling News TV Guide: only TCN gives you all the regional and national curling TV listings in one shot: provincials, Scotties, Super Leagues, you name it!

• The Wrench Speaks: in the first of a multi-part TCN exclusive, living legend Ed Werenich speaks to The Curling News about absolutely everything… growing up in small-town Manitoba, the problems with women’s curling, the Olympic weight fiasco, Marilyn Bodogh, his crowning achievements (and regrets), his brief stint in the TV booth, Sandra Schmirler… and more!

• Our humungous cover story on the race for berths into Canadian Olympic Trials – who has the inside track in qualifying; how the CTRS system works; and which curlers are sick and tired of the whole thing …

• Larry Wood opines that the previous Olympic qualifying system was just fine as it was, thank-you-very-much …

• Letters: readers spout off on the TSN commentators, the number of curlers in Scotland and why women can’t beat men …

• Battle of the Sexes Redux: inspired by a powerful Letter to the Editor, we examine criticism of the Casino Rama Skins experiment and explore the history of the Battle, which now sees the men tied with women at three wins apiece – yes, believe it or not – dating back to the first Battle in November 1973 …

• What’s in his wallet? Kevin Martin stars in a new Capital One TV commercial …

• The Dominion Club Corner: a tale of Trillium grant dollars in Mitchell, Ontario and a golden 50th anniversary in Comox, BC …

• Capital One Grand Slam Stars of the Future: Craig Savill is in the spotlight, although he’s pretty much a star right now …

• The Ultimate Curling Rankings Primer: not only do we list all the men’s and women’s Gold Trail, CTRS, AWCT and Order of Merit standings, we try and explain just what the heck it all means …

And more!

Trust us, you don’t want to miss this one, folks. Make sure you subscribe today.

What else is happening? Geez, what isn’t?

• Marla Mallett is the surprise 2009 B.C. STOH champion …

• It was standing-room only at the Nova Scotia Scotties as Nancy McConnery became the surprise Nova Scotia champion, upsetting TCN’s own Mary-Anne Arsenault in the final. TCN’s own Teri Lake lost the tiebreaker with Team Jill Mouzar.

• Newfoundland is no surprise as Heather Strong has captured another title, her fifth in a row …

• Also advancing to the Scotties in Victoria is Quebec’s Marie-France Larouche, who beat arch-rival Eve Belisle in the Quebec final …

• On Prince Edward Island, Kim Dolan is through to tonight’s final …

• Sherry Middaugh and Ontario – including calendar girl Chrissy Cadorin – are underway today through Sunday, as are a whack of other provincial Scotties championships this week …

• In men’s play, Glenn Howard beat Kevin Martin in a very interesting Canadian Open Slam finale yesterday. It was a game of great shots and stupefying misses – though not as stupefying as those in last year’s Brier final – which helped make it a thoroughly entertaining affair.

Capital One contest winner Ron Trottier almost won a million bucks, but 10 grand ain’t too shabby.

Almost as entertaining – not really – has been the major-league whingeing over foul language dished out by the athletes.

What-ever.

• Don Bartlett is back in the Alberta provincials, as is former two-time provincial finalist Jamie King. So is a fellow named Mike Hutchings, after winning the C-berth yesterday. As the story tells, the Peace district will be repped by Jeff Ginter and Kurt Balderston.

• In the south part of the province, Steve Petryk grabbed the A-berth, Rob Armitage took the B and the C-side finale goes tonight …

• In New Brunwick, names like Odishaw and Kennedy have made it through to the upcoming provincial finale …

• In nothern Sask, three pretty big names from the past are into the Tankard, while here’s the southern qualifiers …

• CurlBC is looking for a Team Leader for their squad at the Wheelchair nationals in late March. Deadline for applications is January 30 …

• Question of the day: is Idaho Statesman writer Bethann Stewart disdainful toward curling, or just a rookie? His story, located here, starts with the zinger “curling, a sport that requires little or no athletic ability. And that’s just part of the charm.”

• And finally, what have our pals at The Curling Show podcast been up to? Well, they’ve recently posted Q7As with Dave Nedohin and John Morris, that’s what …

• Team Ferbey (most of them) were road-weary after playing 10 straight weekends up to Xmas;
• they were 0-9 versus arch-rival Kevin Martin before yesterday’s Game 1 victory;
• Joe Average curling fan hadn’t seen or heard much from them for a while;
• they’re another Edmonton team everyone would love to see at the Trials;
• they’re still, obviously, a damned fine curling team.

Good for them, good for the sport.

Things got picky and icky and sticky yet again, with one player suggesting in the seventh end that they “should just flip a coin.”

And after his last effort of the sixth went bananas, Glenn Howard looked indeed to be working his magic.

The seventh came down to a measure – an excruciating double-measure, actually – which the Ferbs and the TSN TV crew thought would go their way (it didn’t). That skin would have clinched it for the Albertans. Carry-over.

The final frame was huge, with the teams tied at 7K apiece and a whopping $43,000 on the line. Howard missed his first runback, firing it through both intended target rocks but miraculously stuck on his own in the back-four for shot stone.

But after Ferb fourth-thrower David Nedohin made a delicious angle tap to freeze, lady luck had left the casino and Howard’s End arrived. His final runback missed, and the Ferbey Four were back in the winner’s circle.

We’ll have another report plus a variety of sidebars in the upcoming February issue of The Curling News.

This will include a fascinating history of curling’s eternal male versus female debate, with both long-forgotten info and fresh thinking thrown in. Trust us, you don’t want to miss it …

Following this blogpost from yesterday, we’ve been getting some queries about this Howard Jones fellow. As in, who is he, anyway?

Come ON people. You are supposedly members of the Google-slash-YouTube generation. I mean, the guy played at Live Aid, for gosh’s sake.

Here are two Howard hits… one from his hairy heyday, and another where he has a more normal do, plus an all-star band backing him up.

We’d say Howard did quite well back in the day. Just as the other Howard, Glenn, is doing this weekend at the skins. So far.

As for media today, TSN has some videos, interviews, stories and pics on their website, here and here… the Toronto Star was here… and Bob Weeks asks if the CCA is paying attention to all the athlete-oriented hoopla.

We’d say they are indeed. As Weeks notes, and as we previously noted online and in the December issue, the CCA is all over athletes like Kevin Martin, Jennifer Jones and tough-guy John Morris in an multi-media blitzkrieg to sell event tickets. And perhaps mindful of some previous criticism, these spots are bigger budget, high-gloss productions when compared to those of the past.

More evidence the CCA is wired in? CEO Greg Stremlaw was right here, in person, at Casino Rama yesterday.

And today was a just plain bad day at the office for KMart and crew, as the defending Casino Rama skins champions were upended by their Edmonton arch-rivals, Team Ferbey.

A bad stone – which picked out of lead Ben Hebert’s hand not once, not twice but thrice – conspired against Martin throughout the game, but there were a lot of misses too.

Martin even lost his jacket (hopefully temporarily).

This was, overall, a rather subdued semifinal. TSN commentator Ray Turnbull called it “one of the weirdest skins games ever”.

Tonight it’s Jones versus the near-hometown fave, Howard.

The Curling News “Moment of Victory” photo by Anil Mungal

This all-Alberta tussle is getting a bit weird. Randy Ferbey just took a big 5K skin in the fifth and then stole the sixth for a $9,000 to $1,000 lead over Kevin Martin, but in the last few minutes we’ve seen Ferb second Scotty Pfeifer and Martin third John Morris both boot a stone.

In Pfeif’s case, the stone was stationary in the rings, and all eight players merely stood and watched the TV replay on one of the three utterly massive 12 x 16-foot wall screens to decide where to replace the rock.

In Johnny Mo’s case, he was sweeping teammate Ben Hebert’s stone, and so it was promptly removed from play.

Martin is behind, but still in the game. This is the skins, after all.

The Curling News photo by Anil Mungal

One of the advantages of competing in the Casino Rama Curling Skins Game is the stuff you win.

And we’re not just talking about the cash on the line.

This year’s competitor gift pack is chock full of goodies for each and every athlete. Pentax digital camera (12.1 megapixels), electric toothbrush, electric razor – women’s model for Team Jennifer Jones, we hope? – TSN jacket, $500 Via Rail pass… the list goes on.

Hey, it may not compare to the swag that Hollywood celebrities receive – even in an economic downturn – but it’s pretty fine nontheless.

And we’re assured there isn’t an entire “gift lounge”… just a well-stocked Green Room, but of course.

The Curling News photo by Anil Mungal

You can check out the episode of TSN’s Off The Record right here (player is on the right-hand side of the page). But we also point out the Really Off The Record podcast located in the centre of the page (January 8). This audio-only show lasts 4:21 and features host Michael Landsberg asking the four skips (see yesterday’s blogposts) to play “CCA For A Day”, and declare how they would change the sport.

Fun stuff. Glenn Howard would force Kevin Martin and Ferbey to retire (much laughter) but in a frank and serious exchange, Martin and Howard clashed over the concept of Team Canada at the Brier.

Also, Howard declared – unequivocally – that eight-end curling games will be fully implemented across the spectrum of the sport following the 2010 Olympic Winter Games. Hmm… does he know something we don’t?

You can also listen to the FAN 590/Rogers Sportsnet episode of Prime Time Sports featuring Martin and Jennifer Jones right here (click on PTS: 2009-01-08, segment two, starting at 18:20).

Today’s media roundup includes Bob Weeks on his blog and also in the Globe & Mail; Brian McAndrew of the Toronto Star; another pal, James Bisson at the Canadian Press and they guys at Canwest Media, too.

And don’t forget this here TCN Blog, whether you are watching from home or looking for the scoop from overseas.

Or tomorrow AM for the repeat, and also tomorrow online via the TSN Player.

We notice that Kevin Martin was kept pretty far away from Randy Ferbey. Drat! (Click on the pic to increase size.)

As for the Skins Game itself, you can find an event preview story here, another one here… and the main event page is located here.

And now, tickets.

This weekend’s skins showdown is almost sold out. The Ticketmaster portal is apparently reading “unavailable” for many people. If you have this problem, and you dearly want tickets, you have two options.

1. Visit the Casino Rama box office in person.

2. Or choose the official secret method, divulged just for you courtesy of The Curling News. Call the Casino Rama Customer Service line at 1-8800-832-PLAY (7529) and very specifically say: “I want to buy a three-game pass for the curling skins game”.

It is apparently important that you clearly state your intentions to buy a three-game pass. You need to be directed by Customer Service to the box office, and if you try to buy single-game tickets or any other package, you’re out of luck (as indicated by this recent Casino Rama posting). And if you don’t act quickly, you may be plain out of luck anyway!

Finally, our coverage. The Curling News Blog is still unsure of our coverage plans for the weekend, but if you are settling in at home to watch skins action – or cursing from outside Canada over the unavailability of the TV signal – be sure to check us out online when you take a washroom or fridge break. Like last year, you just might find us blogging live from the event.

Finally… don’t forget, the skins is televised in High Definition, and it looks utterly amazing. So if you aren’t yet set up with HD in your home, get on the horn and start arranging a viewing party at a friend’s place.

Game on!